The search for a new CEO and president of Duke University Health System and chancellor for health affairs is narrowing down.
The search process—which started in April after former chancellor Victor Dzau's February announcement that he would be leaving—has narrowed the search pool from an initial group of over 250 candidates, said Richard Riddell, University secretary and ex officio member of the search committee, though he could not specify the number of candidates still in the selection pool. According to a letter sent by President Richard Brodhead to the Duke community in April, the University’s goal is to have a new chancellor in place by early 2015.
During the search, Duke Medicine has been led by Dr. William Fulkerson, executive vice president of Duke University Health System, and Dr. Nancy Andrews, dean of the School of Medicine and vice chancellor for academic affairs.
“The search is going well,” Riddell said. “The committee was extremely impressed with the candidates that it’s been considering.”
Riddell added that the search process is on schedule to select a new chancellor by early 2015, although it is still unclear exactly when the new chancellor assume the role. The process could take until June or July if the selected candidate cannot come to Duke immediately, he said.
“You don’t know in a search who the successful candidate is going to be and you don’t know the situation they have, how quickly they would leave [their job] and come here,” Riddell said. “For some people it might be easier to leave quickly than others, so you have to wait and see.”
A final decision in the selection process will be made by Brodhead based on recommendations from the search committee, he said. The selected candidate will then be approved by the Board of Trustees and the Health System Board of Directors.
There are a number of criteria being used in the search process. According to a job description posted online by Duke, the new chancellor will need to handle DUHS’ multiple roles as both a hospital and research center. In the research arena, the description points out that the new chancellor will need to balance research priorities against flat or diminishing federal research funding.
Riddell said that the new chancellor will also have to ensure that the health system is adaptable to changes in the healthcare industry resulting from reduced margins, the Affordable Care Act, and other factors.
“Clearly the world of healthcare is a very dynamic world right now,” Riddell explained. “Whoever’s going to be chancellor is going to have to oversee how the health system adapts to this changing world.”
Riddell also pointed out that a major component of the new chancellor’s job will be ensuring that the different components of the health system work together.
“All of this has to work together. It all has to align,” Riddell said. “The research, the education, and the clinical care, they work together.”
Chair of the search committee, G. Richard Wagoner Jr., the immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees, could not be reached for comment. The vice chair, Dr. Barton F. Haynes, the Frederic M. Hanes Professor of Medicine and Immunology, deferred all comment to Riddell.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.